Israel's settlement project is institutionalized bigotry on
steroids: Israel's Jews-only settlements in the illegally occupied
territories are not merely shrinking the territory available for a
Palestinian state. Israel's generously subsidized Jews-only
settlements in the illegally occupied territories are connected to
Israel proper by modern Israeli built highways enabling Israelis to
blithely and easily violate international law at relatively high
speeds. Furthermore these Israeli built modern highways are
protected by Israeli checkpoints and punitive checkpoint polices
which cut off traditional Palestinian roads and cripple Palestinian
communities, cruelly impoverishing Palestinians in every way at
every turn.

Israel's settlement expansion is harassment expansion: This week a
large group of Israeli settlers "violently beat a young Palestinian
woman while she was picking olives from trees in an orchard in the
village of Yasuf in the Salfit district in the central West
Bank"..."Attacks on the fall harvest are a key way that Palestinians
are forced out of their homes and their lands confiscated for
settlement construction, as the loss of a year's crop can signal
destitution for farmers with no other way to support themselves." Settlers
beat a Palestinian woman picking olives with her children near
Salfit

Israeli occupation antics and anti-Palestine pranks send a clear
message to Islamists worldwide that international law needs to be
scorned, and human rights, as well as borders, and the rule of fair
and just laws, are all antiquated and irrelevant notions.

Kudos to Britain's House of Commons for endorsing diplomatic
recognition of a Palestinian state, as well as Kudos to those who
helped make that happen by shaping the conversation in mainstream
ways, kudos to the media who cover as much as they can (including
the NYTimes) and most importantly Kudos to all who are focused in on
empowering negotiations to end the Israel-Palestine conflict with a
just and lasting peace for everyone's sake.